But beyond that, the details are vague. “I don’t have any idea of a release date or a worry about one for that matter,” he says. “But I’m really excited to be doing it because I don’t think it’s ever felt this much like the beginning again.”

Recording in his home studio, Carrabba clarifies: “No one’s paying attention. No one’s looking over my shoulder to see how the songs are going or when the record’s coming out. There are no notes from anybody. I’m just quietly toiling away like I did on my first album [2000’s The Swiss Army Romance].”

Carrabba notes the new Dashboard music stays true to the group’s original sound — popularized in the pop-punk and emo genres — and teases the lyrical content of Dashboard’s music has always been about honesty. “Something I’ve always written about is the challenging and joys of navigating your way through life.”

Carrabba has long put together Dashboard music on his own, but admits that he’s been “messing around with some friends from our scene.” He says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they made it onto the album.”

Though Carrabba hasn’t stopped putting out music — he last released an album with his other band Twin Forks in 2014 — this will be Dashboard’s first album since 2009’s Alter the Ending. The band’s recent position back in the spotlight has been thanks to, in part, what fans and critics have dubbed the “emo revival.”

“We were revived so that term works for me,” Carrabba says. “We literally did go away.”